The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

RIO de Janeiro, Brazil — This is the fifth Olympic appearance for quarter-miler Christine Amertil and after running on the 4 x 100 metre team in London, England four years ago, for the first time she will get to run in a women’s 4 x 400 metre relay when the preliminaries take place at the Olympic Stadium tonight.

Amertil, the 36-year-old female team captain, said things are looking really good for their squad and she anticipates that they will perform very well when they compete out of heat two in lane six against India (one), Great Britain (two), Italy (three), Jamaica (four), Germany (five), Cuba (seven) and Canada (eight).

“I think things are going well,” Amertil said after their final workout session yesterday, an off day for the Bahamas with no competitors entered in any events. “The girls are really gelling together. We’ve all ran together with each other before, so we should do very well.”

In the relay pool with Amertil are new Olympic 400m champion Shaunae Miller, Lanece Clarke, Carmiesha Cox and Anthonique Strachan. However, Miller’s participation will depend on her recovery from the bruises she sustained while stumbling over the finish line on Monday to snatch the gold over American Allyson Felix.

Although it’s not certain yet who will run and in which order, Amertil said she’s confident that whatever team is out on the track, they will be prepared to give it their best shot,

Amertil said the goal first is to get one of the top two shots, which is “an automatic” qualifier.

“Anything could happen,” she said in commenting on the fact that the relays are a little more compelling to compete in than an individual event because obviously they have to work together as a unit, trying to get the baton around.

Over the years, Amertil said she was longing for the opportunity to run on a women’s 1,600m relay team and now that it’s here, she wants to take full advantage of it.

“It’s the first our Olympic women’s 4 x 4 relay team, so it’s exciting and it’s historic,” said Amertil of the women’s team that got in with the 16th and final spot after Russia was not allowed to compete because of a widespread doping violation. “It’s my fifth Olympics, but it’s so exciting (for me) to see the younger kids who are here (competing on Team Bahamas).”

As the leader of the pack, not just by age, but experience, Amertil said she’s doing all she can to help the younger athletes stay grounded and firm in order to be able to compete at their best. So far, she said they have done that.

Overly excited about Miller’s thrilling victory in the 400m to become just the second Bahamian to win a gold medal in the event, Amertil said the performance so far, in her opinion, has to be the one produced by Pedrya Seymour, who in her first year running the women’s 100m hurdles, she made it to the final, finishing sixth on Wednesday night.

And as they have all been inspired by the results so far from Team Bahamas, Amertil said it would be no better feeling than for the women to take care of business and not only make it to the final, but go all the way and ick up a medal in the process. That, she said, would be a fitting tribute to close out the Olympic experience here.

Amertil, who contested the women’s 400m from Sydney, Australia in 2000, to the Athens, Greece in 2004 and Beijing, China in 2008, encouraged the Bahamian people to continue to support them in the rest of their endeavours at this year’s Olympics.